Talk, talk, talk!

Lately, one of Kalina's most adamant requests of us has been "Talk, talk, talk!" She wants us to talk. Usually as the voice of one of her myriad animal friends, and she can hardly be satiated even after hours of really repetitive scenarios and conversations ("Oh yay, hot dogs for everyone again!").

We, of course, run out of interesting things to say to the animals within a few sentences, but our gigs are saved by the fact that our audience things jokes get even funnier each time you tell them. That's not to say Kalina's not a critic--she keeps the animals firmly in line--but at least we know some sure-fire ways to get a laugh.

We can't help but be annoyed by this near-constant demand (she never sweetens it with a "please"), but it's also quite cute. She shows off for them, takes care of them, laughs with/at them, chides them and more.

She doesn't even seem to mind when Daddy uses Camel puppet to talk to Mommy about his day. "Today at work..." he says in his wise, old camel voice, and Kalina accepts this at least for a short time, until she starts distributing hot dogs out of thin air once again for everyone to munch on because Camel's conversation, in her opinion, has gotten a bit dull and needs to be livened up a bit.

I've also noticed that Kalina's much more likely to obey our hedgehog puppet than Mommy herself. I save this knowledge for dire situations, but I do occasionally adopt Harriet as an accessory until Kalina's willing to be a bit more cooperative.

In a moment of clarity, we realized that with all our talk, we've become Kalina's television. In this way, it's possibly to the detriment of our own sanity that we don't let her watch, but we still press on with our "no TV until Kalina's a teenager or the baby arrives, whichever comes first," rule.

And we put Kalina to work talking, as well. Two of our newest hobbies include asking Kalina to say complex, multi-syllable words, and asking her opinion on things that she couldn't possibly have an opinion on just to hear what absurd things she'll reply. Both give us a good laugh:

Us: Kalina, say "infrastructure!"
Kalina: Intrfasturca!
Us: Hahahaha! Say it again, Kalina, say "infrastructure!"
And so forth. Poor girl. Fortunately, she's usually laughing too.

Or,

Us, as Daddy's leaving for work: Kalina, doesn't Daddy's outfit look sharp today?
Kalina: No.
Us: Well, does it look nice? (already cracking up)
Kalina: No. (straight-faced)
Us: Does it look nerdy?
Kalina: No.
Us: Oh good, does it just look okay?
Kalina: Yes.
Us: Full-out hilarity.

Fortunately, Kalina is quite good-natured in each of these instances and so far doesn't seem to mind when we all have a good chuckle at her expense. All the parenting books would probably tell us that we're terrible parents for doing this, and that studies show our child will neither make it into Harvard or out of therapy, but we're enjoying ourselves too much to pay attention.

Kalina's definitely off to the races with her chatter, by the way. Although most of you will never hear it (she clams up around anyone who's not a blood relative or an animal), Kalina can keep up with conversations with astonishing ease. And if the conversations aren't about cats or fishing, for example, she simply changes the subject.

She doesn't even let punctuation get in the way entertaining us with lengthy monologues about:

"The white-tailed deer ate the big dirt pile and went into the sewer drain and the spiders got the white-tailed deer back out and it went to Grandma's house on an airplane and came back home," for instance. (This was in reference to what happened to the big dirt pile that was a popular landmark along our route out of our neighborhood for months. I saw a solitary digger truck cart it away, but Kalina wasn't in the car at the time and this is what she believes happened to it.)

In the end, we both love conversing with our toddler (even through puppets) and finally getting some glimpses into what goes on in that mind of hers. We're almost always pleasantly surprised. And at the very least, we can all have a good laugh together.